September 23-24, 2020 - Homer Vents and Edger Repair

September 23rd:

During our last campout at times we had a sewer smell in Homer. I thought maybe it was because the tanks were getting full. When this happens sometimes the vent pipe gets blocked and the smell comes back inside when the toilet is flushed or the other drains used. We dumped the tanks when we left the lake but when he was closed up there was still a bad smell sometimes. 

There are two waste vents. One for the black (toilet) tank and one for the gray (sinks and shower) tank. The usual reason for a smell is that a vent is blocked for some reason. I decided yesterday to see if I could run water down the vent pipes to determine if one or both vents were blocked. The vent pipe caps on Homer are a little different than most. Here is a picture of the type of vent caps on Homer.

It has a removable top section but when it is installed all screws are caulked over so that it does not leak. Because of this the top cap cannot easily be removed to put a water hose down the pipe. I'm afraid if I scraped off the caulk from the top cap mounting screws the 27 year old vent cap would be history and I would have to install new caps anyway. In an attempt to get around this problem I adapted a small piece of clear tubing to the water hose and tried to push it up in the gap between the top and bottom sections of the cap to get water into the vent pipe. I was unsuccessful. 

There is a new style of cap called a "360 Siphon Vent Cap" which uses the Venturi effect to eliminate tank smells. As air goes over the opening it pulls air out of the vent pipe. They are also nice because they cannot be clogged up by bugs. I put one on Marge some years back and it has worked well. Here is a picture.

I ordered two of these yesterday along with several tubes of caulk to waterproof them after installation. Once I have the old caps off I can run a hose down each vent to make sure the pipe is clear all the way to the tank. If blocked I can work to open them up. Once I am sure they are venting as they should I can then install the new caps and the smell issue should be solved. Installation to follow upon arrival of parts.

September 24th:

Today I cut the grass and edged everything with my 30+ year old John Deere edger. I just spent $65.00 a couple of weeks ago to have the carburetor rebuilt due to old age. It is a beast of a machine and makes edging fast and easy so it was worth the money to fix. Today while I was edging it was throwing debris on me. Upon examination I found that the blade guard had moved down. Upon examination the reason was that it was cracked in several places which allowed it to slip out of position. I had welded this guard once before many years ago. Here is a picture of the current cracks. It cracked in the middle, next to the old weld, and on the right side.

Here is a picture after I welded it today. It's not pretty but it is thin metal so I built it up on the outside for strength.

On the edger one of the back tires had cracked open a couple of years ago. I filled the tire crack with spray foam and it worked until today when chunks of the tire just fell off. Here is a picture. No more fixing it. A new wheel and tire is needed.

I thought it would be an simple matter of buying a new wheel and replacing it. Not my luck. I looked on the internet and all tires were 7 inches or 8 inches and all had 1/2 inch axle openings. On this edger the wheel measured 7 1/2 inches and the axle was a little over 3/8ths of an inch in diameter. I went to Buchheit's and luckily they had a 7 inch wheel which actually measured 7 1/4 inches, close enough. The problem was the axle bore was 1/2 inch just like all those on the internet. I bought it anyway thinking it might work. I put it on the axle and there was a lot of flop. It probably would have been okay and outlasted me but it wouldn't have been right. I went back to Buchheit's and purchased a brass bushing which was 1/2 inch outside and 3/8 inch inside. Here is a picture.

I thought this would be perfect. It wasn't. The 1/2 inch outside diameter fit the wheel fine but the 3/8 inch inside diameter was too small for the axle. I attempted to drill it out on the drill press but the metal got too thin and it was destroyed. I then looked around the shop for another option. In my plumbing drawer I found two brass compression nuts for water lines that, with a little drilling, fit on the axle fine. Here is a picture.

I was able to drill out the center of each nut to a size that fit the axle and then I rounded off the corners on the grinder to make my own two-piece bushing.  I pressed them into the axle hole of the wheel and the new wheel fit on the axle perfectly.  

I had some John Deere yellow spray paint so I decided while I was doing this to paint the weld on the guard to keep it from rusting and to paint the new white wheel to match everything else.  Here is a picture of the edger with the new wheel and repaired guard back in place. It should be good for another thirty years.